Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

This comic shows a patient eagerly asking a doctor to confirm a self-diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome, explaining that he scowled at a girl who called him handsome. The doctor corrects him: no, if he's aware that scowling was the wrong reaction, he doesn't have Asperger's -- he has "a much worse condition." The caption below defines "Assburger's Syndrome" as "the belief that a self-diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome entitles you to be an asshole."

The comic satirizes a specific social phenomenon where people self-diagnose with Asperger's Syndrome (now part of Autism Spectrum Disorder) as an excuse for rude or antisocial behavior. The key distinction the doctor draws is that actual Asperger's involves genuine difficulty reading social cues -- the person wouldn't necessarily know their reaction was inappropriate. If you know you behaved badly and are just looking for a medical excuse, your problem isn't a neurological condition; it's that you're choosing to be rude. The invented term "Assburger's Syndrome" in the caption drives the point home with a crude pun. While the comic risks oversimplifying the actual complexities of autism spectrum conditions, its target is specifically the phenomenon of using a self-diagnosis to dodge accountability for deliberate rudeness.